Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)

Why does it once again take "Prime Time", a national TV programme, to highlight such a matter? I recall that in 2001, when the Minister of State with responsibility for older people was in this House, I raised an issue regarding a nursing home in north Mayo. I will inform the House of the response by the State and the health boards. I received a complaint from a family member and went to the nursing home, unannounced, on a Saturday evening. The matron did not want to let me in. I said I was going in because as a publicly elected representative I had a right to see for myself what was going on. I told her I had received a complaint and was investigating it.

I returned to this House and put my comments on the record. A Member of the previous Dáil, a colleague of the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Lenihan, saw the charade by the health board, which could not cover up what had happened quickly enough. It used a substantial amount of money — and I take the credit for that action — in bringing that public nursing home up to a standard whereby people could at least feel they were in a nursing home rather than endure the conditions I saw on the night I visited. I put all that on the record of the House.

I will inform the House what happened three weeks later. It reflects what is taking place in this country. It is time for the Minister of State and his colleagues to realise it. He and the health officials are paid by the State, taxpayers in effect. Health officials must own up to their responsibilities. They are all running for cover and away from the problem, with none of them taking responsibility.

When I raised the complaint about the nursing home in this House, the Western Health Board cleaned up the problem. It organised an open day. There was a big charade with all the elected Fianna Fáil representatives who brought local radio representatives with them. The sad thing was that the Minister who visited the nursing home on that day thought he was fooling the people there. The people spoke a few months later. The Minister was not re-elected, while I got the largest vote ever seen in that area.

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